


In Shining Armor

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Disguise, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Flower Crowns, Happy Ending, Historical Roleplay, Love Confessions, M/M, Medieval Re-Enactments, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6471709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel Novak really wants to join the new medieval re-enactment club at his school, but he doesn't want anyone to know he's joining, so he decides to go in disguise so nobody will know who he is. He definitely doesn't expect to fall for the president of the club, Sam Winchester, who incidentally has hated him for the two years they've been at school together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Shining Armor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trustyourdragons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trustyourdragons/gifts).



> This is my first Camp NaNoWriMo fic of the year!! Mostly I'm working on Big Bangs but I got super inspired for this so have a thing. I know nothing about medieval re-enactments, but, I figured Sam and Gabriel would know a lot more. >.>
> 
> Gifted to Abbie because I screamed this to her as a headcanon yesterday morning and then couldn't get it out of my head. Thankyou for being the best inspiration. <3

"A medieval re-enactment club?"

Sam took a deep breath. He'd expected to be judged on this one. "Principal Singer, I have signatures from ten students who'd be interested in joining. I've found a meeting time that works for people and a location to run the club. I even submitted a health and safety proposal for the group. I've followed all the rules, I just need the go-ahead from you saying that I can run the group."

"I'm getting too old for this," Principal Singer mumbled to himself, eyes glancing towards the bottom drawer of his desk. "Boy, I don't care about the rules, I don't care if you want to stand alone in a field waving a sword around just so long as you don't try to get me into any kind of costume. You have your fun. Where do I gotta sign?"

Sam opened his mouth to protest that Principal Signer really should read the health and safety proposal because right now he was trusting the word of a sixteen-year-old to ensure that nobody else got stabbed, but then closed it again. No point arguing when he was getting what he wanted.

"Right here, and then here, and then if you get your secretary to add us to the clubs database so kids can register, and that's it!"

Principal Singer did as he was told, then waved Sam out of his office so that the kid could be on time to class. Medieval re-enactments. Just when he thought things at his school couldn't get any weirder.

\--

Gabriel Novak swung his backpack over his shoulder, wincing as one of the safety pins decorating it slammed into his side. The price he paid for looking cool. He sauntered down the corridor, having long ago perfected his walk so that he could be two minutes late for math class - late enough that he looked like he didn't really care, but not too late, so that he wouldn't get given detention.

Today, though, something messed up his perfect walk.

A new poster on the wall nearest his locker, brightly colored and advertising what was apparently the 'Lawrence High School Medieval Re-Enactment Society (Better Name To Be Voted On In Early Meetings.) 

Gabriel pulled out his phone and pretended to be texting somebody, but he was actually scanning the rest of the information on the poster.

\- Meets Thursdays 3-5pm on the soccer field, weather permitting

\- Discussion time + snacks followed by action time!

\- Costumes welcome, bring your own or ask other members for help!

Gabriel took a quick picture and then slid his phone back into his pocket, frowning to himself. There was no way he could let himself do this. This was the kind of thing that ruined people's social standing. It didn't matter that medieval costumes were a solid two-thirds of what he drew in his sketchbook. It definitely didn't matter that he had a secret fascination with history and was taking the AP class even though he told everyone he was just in the regular class. It wasn't something he could do.

He sat down in the back of the math classroom - three minutes late. Damn, the poster must have distracted him if he was off by that much. 

"Mr Novak, you're late. See me after school for detention. Sam, write him a slip, will you? I nee to get started on graphing sines and cosines,"

Sam Winchester walked to the front of the room and wrote out a detention slip. He even signed it, because apparently this was something teachers trusted him to do. He dropped the slip on Gabriel's desk, leaning down and hissing, "Don't be late again. It disrupts us all when you show up late, everyone has less time to learn and I need an A in this class if I want to get into Stanford."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, not gracing that with a response. He was used to Sam being a dick to him, and he was very good at pretending that it didn't bother him.

\--

"We're going skating. You joining us?"

Ash and Balthazar caught up with Gabriel right outside his locker, surrounding him so that he couldn't get away.

"I, uh, I actually can't. I have detention."

"Again? Dude, you're slipping. I thought you had a system."

Gabriel scowled, mostly to himself. He'd forgotten about the one last Friday. Maybe that hadn't been the best lie he could have come up with today. He should have claimed to have an early shift at work.

"Yeah, I got caught playing a prank on some freshmen. Worth it, though. I can meet you there a bit later? Might even be able to get some beers off Luke."

The other two agreed, and left Gabriel alone. Finally.

After Sam had given him that detention last week, he'd spent the entire weekend working on his costume. He'd come up with the perfect solution to his problem. If he could create something really awesome, something that hid his face, then nobody else at the club would be able to recognize him. He could go there every week and have the time of his life and so long as he kept finding excuses for why he disappeared on Thursday afternoons, nobody would be any the wiser.

Gabriel knew he'd carried out some reckless plans in the past, but he thought this one might actually be foolproof. He slid on his helmet and picked up his sword as the finishing touch, sashaying down the halls and out to the soccer field.

"Hey, everyone! I'm sorry I'm late! Would have been here five minutes ago, but chainmail is a bitch to sort out."

There was a laugh. It was a familiar laugh.

"Yeah, that's why I figured I'd do discussion first, so that people who have complicated costumes could drop in whenever. Good afternoon. I'm Admiral Sam the Brave. What should I call you?"

Sam Winchester extended a hand to Gabriel, grinning cheekily at him.

In the two plus years they'd been at school together, Gabriel didn't think he'd ever seen Sam smile before. Certainly not towards him.

At least that meant that the costume was doing its job and hiding his identity.

Gabriel bowed slightly before taking Sam's hand and shaking it. He might as well play this up as much as he could. Then one day, maybe, he could laugh at Sam for ever being nice to him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Admiral. I am..." Shit, he hadn't thought of a name. "...Tim."

Sam chuckled. "Just Tim? No title?"

Gabriel thought quickly. This was definitely something he should have considered sooner. "Tim the Bard. So named for the stories I tell after battles over a round of mead in the pub."

"Excellent! Well, Tim the Bard, I look forward to your stories. Let me introduce you to the rest of the group!"

Sam pointed at each group member in turn, about fifteen of them in all - definitely a better turnout than either Sam or Gabriel had expected - and let them say their names. Some of the names people had chosen were absolutely amazing, making Gabriel wish even harder that he'd chosen a better name than Tim, but there was nothing he could do.

From there they moved into a discussion of what they all were hoping would happen in club meetings, the experience they'd had in the past, their levels of knowledge and how realistic they wanted to make things. Gabriel had to bite his lip a few times to keep from correcting other peoples' facts - he didn't want to make a name for himself as the know-it-all kid who only ever told everyone they were wrong - but he did at least agree that they should keep things as lighthearted as possible. And from there they tried out a mock battle, those of them who had swords or daggers waving them around and getting used to how they felt, everyone else improvising by grabbing whatever they could find from their backpacks that vaguely resembled a weapon. By the time five o'clock rolled around, every member of the group had fallen over laughing at least once, and there was unanimous agreement that the first meeting had been a success.

Sam and Gabriel stood close to each other, still recovering from an epic battle that had left Sam's sword permanently bent out of shape, both of them exhausted and already aware that their muscles were going to ache horribly tomorrow. Neither of them felt quite ready to move away from each other.  


"So, Tim the Bard, how about one of those famous stories?"

Gabriel glanced around the field. "Everyone else has gone home."

"You have somewhere you need to be?"

Gabriel shook his head. He thought of Ash and Balthazar. The two of them were probably performing bad skateboard tricks and doing their best to impress uninterested girls. It would be fun, sure, but it was the kind of thing the three of them did every week. How many opportunities would he get to lie on the grass with Sam Winchester and tell him a story?

"No, I'm free all night. I shall indeed tell you a story, but I am afraid I have no mead."

Sam grabbed his backpack and pulled out two bottles of orange Powerade. "Here is your mead, freshly poured into a tankard."

Gabriel fought to keep a straight face underneath his helmet. "Thankyou, Admiral. Will you sit?"

The two of them stretched out on the ground, gazing up into the late afternoon sky, and Gabriel began. "Today I will tell the tale of the good knight Caltor of Wykeham, and his faithful squire Lancelin the Blue. Their tale is wonderful, a great love story full of hope, tragedy and the occasional drunken fistfight, and has been passed down through the ages through my whole family. Here it goes..."

Gabriel kept talking, and his throat got tired and it became effort to speak loud enough to be heard through the helmet, but still he continued, inventing amazing tales of the knight and his squire that culminated, as every good story should, in the two of them falling in love and riding off on a single steed into the sunset together. Sam was a wonderful audience, listening to every word he said and gasping in an exaggerated way in all the right places. As Gabriel talked, he noticed that Sam was doing something with his hands - pulling daisies from the ground and twisting them together.

"And the two of them lives happily ever after in a small cottage on the coast, spending their days talking about stories from their past and wondering about the future of our society. Perhaps a thousand years down the line, they thought, they could be together for real without society turning them away - but for now, they were just grateful to have each other, alive, safe, and happy. The end."

He beamed, even though he knew Sam couldn't see it.

"Well, Tim the Bard, you have certainly lived up to your name. That was truly an epic tale. However will you top that one neck week?"

Gabriel laughed, and it hurt his throat to do so, but he couldn't hold it back. "Perhaps next week it will be your turn to tell me a story, Admiral. I'm sure you have secret talents besides commanding your men and women in battle."

Sam shook his head. "I don't think so. I did make something for you, to, uh, signify your status as the Bard." He held up his daisy creation, revealing a flower crown, one that had been woven together during Gabriel's story and somehow fit perfectly over his helmet.

Gabriel blushed. "Thankyou, Admiral. It's beautiful."

The two of them glanced around. Neither of them were wearing a watch (it hardly fit with the period) but it was getting dark now, and they had definitely been there for a long time. 

Sam broke the silence first. "So, I should probably get going. Lots of homework, and my brother will be wondering where I am. I kind of didn't tell him that I was starting this club. He'd laugh."

Gabriel nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you think Tim is my real name? I didn't want anyone to know who I was. Definitely not something people would expect me to be into."

"You'll tell me, though, right?" Sam asked, leaning in close like he was about to learn a juicy secret. "Just between us. I won't tell anyone."

Gabriel leaned in closer too, and he was about to reveal his identity - it couldn't hurt having just one person know, could it? - when he realized exactly who he was talking to here. Sam Winchester hated him, looked down at him, thought he was a good for nothing punk. And Gabriel couldn't stand to see the look of disgust that would definitely be on Sam's face if he told him who he was. Yes, the two of them had had an amazing evening together, yes, they'd definitely bonded over completely false stories of gay knights and the squires who almost died for them - but that didn't change two years of hating each other. If Gabriel wanted this to continue, if he wanted to talk to Sam again next week, he would have to keep this a secret. And he really didn't want to lose this. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a good time.

"I'm sorry, but Tim the Bard has to retain some kind of mystery, even from his closest associates. It's the storyteller's way, I'm afraid."

Sam raised an eyebrow, but let it drop, pulling back, and the moment between them was broken. "Well. In that case I will see you next week, Tim."

Gabriel saluted, and he stayed where he was seated cross-legged on the grass as he watched Sam pick up his backpack and walk away, calling after him, "Til next time, Admiral Sam!"

\--

Sam walked away across the field, and he wanted to glance back behind him to see if Tim was still there, but he forced himself to walk forward. He wanted to know. He was endlessly curious. But he had absolutely no way of finding out, short of pinning the guy down and wrenching his helmet off his head, which... well, Sam definitely wasn't against pinning the guy down, but it did seem like kind of a dick move. He'd started the club hoping to meet some new people who shared his interest in weird, nerdy medieval stuff, but he definitely hadn't expected to meet anyone as great as... Tim.

It felt weird calling him Tim in his head now that he knew Tim was in fact somebody else.

Sam spent the week between club meetings looking round each classroom and each hallway he found himself in, wondering if he was walking past Tim, even sitting next to him, without realizing it. Nobody jumped out at him as a potential Tim candidate. So he sighed, resigning himself to not knowing, and he hoped that he would find out this Thursday.

He did a little more work on his costume (definitely for personal pride reasons and definitely not to impress anyone) and showed up as quickly as he could on Thursday afternoon. Tim was already there. Apparently the kid was making up for being late last week.

"How the hell did you get here so soon? You skip your last class to get ready or something?" Sam didn't approve of skipping class. Definitely not. And he definitely wasn't going to make any exceptions for Tim the Bard.

"Not the entire class. I might have faked a splitting headache fifteen minutes before the end. Just wanted to give myself enough time to look good for the Admiral."

Sam coughed, because that was definitely flirting, way more blatant than anything else that had happened last week.

"Well, I hope getting bloodied up in battle doesn't ruin your good looks too much. Although if it does, I shall be more than happy to attend to your wounds."

At that moment, Charlie and Jo, two of Sam's friends who had helped start the club, showed up, waving to him. Sam hugged both of them at once and did a fairly excellent job of pretending he wasn't disappointed to have his alone time with Tim disrupted.

\--

"My Bard! Are you hurt?"

They were on the field. They'd been fighting for a while, two sides of the battle colliding. Charlie had swung her sword, a little too hard, catching Gabriel in the back of the knees and sending him tumbling to the ground. He wasn't hurt, not really, but he was a little winded and from this position it would be difficult to stand up and get back into the fighting. Plus, if he played it up, maybe he could have Sam take care of him.

"Dreadfully! I fear my leg will never be the same," he gasped, dramatically throwing his hand to his forehead.

"Wait, really?" Sam muttered.

"No, I'm fine," Gabriel replied.

Sam called to his battalion. "We have a man down! Tim the Bard is gravely injured! Do we have a doctor in the group? Can we possibly save him?"

The rest of the group jumped back in horror, looking among themselves for a doctor. "There is none!" Jo cried. "You must save him yourself, Admiral Sam. We all believe in you."

Sam looked determined. "If this is the only option, then yes. I will do everything I possibly can to ensure Tim the Bard lives a long and happy life, with both of his legs intact!"

Sam ran over to his schoolbag and pulled out a packet of Band-Aids. He fussed over Gabriel's leg, pretending to inspect it. "Tim, I am afraid the outcome does not look good."

"Surely there is something you can do?" Gabriel croaked. "I feel faint... I may pass out..."

Sam gritted his teeth. "There is just one thing, one final procedure that may prove effective. But it is dangerous. And rarely successful."

"Do it! If I'll die anyway, it's worth the risk! I'll try anything!"

"Alright. I shall." Sam opened the box of Band-Aids and pulled out the biggest one, making a show of unwrapping it and placing it carefully on Gabriel's leg, over his clothes, smoothing it into place. Gabriel slumped onto the floor, his eyes slipping closed and his body going limp.

Sam grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. "Tim! Tim! Please, Lord, tell me I was in time! Tell me Tim the Bard is alive!"

Gabriel twitched. "Sam..." he whispered.

"Oh, thank God!" Sam slumped down onto Gabriel's chest, clutching him tight.

"You saved my life, Admiral Sam. How can I ever repay you?"

There was a pause. Then Sam sat up and smiled sadly, not an exaggerated, character sort of smile - a real one. "Tell me your name?"

Gabriel froze. He'd thought they were past that by now. "I cannot, good sir. In good faith, I have been sworn to secrecy."

Sam shook his head. "I mean it. Why can't you tell me?"

Gabriel didn't really have a valid answer for that. Not one Sam would understand.

"Come on. We should get back to the battle. They'll wonder what we're doing all the way over here."

There was another pause while Sam considered whether or not to push the matter, but then he shrugged, giving up.

"Ah, yes, scandalous rumors will surely arise," he nodded. "You are very wise, Tim the Bard."

\--

Weeks went past, and Sam was beginning to get frustrated. No matter what he tried, he just couldn't figure out who Tim the Bard could possibly be, and the guy was a master of mystery, doing an amazing job of keeping the truth to himself. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

"Alright, everyone!" he announced at the end of one meeting towards the end of November. "Christmas break is coming up, so I thought we could have a medieval themed Christmas meal! And when I say medieval themed, it would totally be at the new Chinese place in town because they're pretty cheap and they still had space on the date I wanted, but it'd be first Saturday in December at one o'clock, and we can all wear our regular clothes, and we can do character stuff or we can get to know each other out of character, it's totally up to you guys. But I thought it'd be a cool celebration of our first term together!"

There was a murmur of interest, and everyone seemed excited about the prospect as Sam wrote down the name and address of the restaurant for a few people. Tim the Bard didn't say anything.

Sam waited until the rest of the group had cleared away. Tim waited, just as he always did, pretending to be making a move away from the group, but actually not going everywhere. Sam knew - or at least he was pretty sure - that Tim was just trying to play it cool, and that he actually did want to talk to him.

"Hey. Are you going to come to the meal? I'll let you sit next to me and everything." 

Tim chuckled. "Alas, fair Admiral, I will not be able to make it. I have my sister's wedding to attend on the same day, and I cannot leave her, as I am to walk her down the aisle due to our father's absence."

Sam smirked. Out of everyone in the group, Tim was definitely the best at staying in character, and Sam had to fight to get any personal information out of him. It was strangely exhilarating. "Seriously, though. Do you actually have a wedding to go to?"

Tim's posture changed as he slid out of his character. "Nah. Nobody I know ever gets married. But I do have to work that day, I work pretty much every weekend, so I really won't be able to make it."

Sam thought of asking where Tim worked, but that seemed too personal. "Is there any other time you could do? I could change the date..." He hoped he wasn't getting too desperate.

"Don't worry about me. I don't get a whole lot of free time and everyone else already agreed to Saturday, I don't want to mess them all around. I hope you all have a great time." He patted Sam on the shoulder, and Sam wished there were less gloves and shoulder pads between the two of them.

"Okay," Sam shrugged, resigned. "If you're sure. Hey, if it works out, we'll make it a regular thing, and you'll be able to come next time?"

"Yeah. Definitely," Tim agreed, but Sam had a suspicion that he didn't actually mean it. Was the guy this desperate to hide his identity that he'd pass up any kind of social event?

It just made Sam even more curious, even though he knew he should probably be wary.

"Since I won't be able to attend the banquet, would my Admiral care to hear a story?" Tim asked, sliding smoothly back into character, and Sam smiled.

"Why, of course. I could never turn down the tempting offer of one of my Bard's tales." He took Tim's hand and the two of them sat down, things no longer awkward, both of them ignoring the cold and focusing instead on each other.

\--

Gabriel flopped down onto his bed, close to tears. He didn't know what the fuck was happening. He'd never expected to get this deep. Here he was, with a broken piece of chest armor that definitely needed fixing, a gradually less believable list of excuses for why he was never around on Thursday nights - and an inappropriately huge crush on a kid in school who was a thousand times too good for him. And Sam was almost definitely starting to get suspicious now. 

Gabriel wanted to go to the Christmas dinner more than almost anything. He woke up that Saturday morning earlier than he had on a Saturday in years, and he pictured himself putting on some nice (twenty-first century) clothes and heading to the restaurant. Pictured the look on Sam's face.

He tried to force himself picture a smile, maybe an exclamation of delight, but it seemed too unrealistic.

He rolled over and tried to force himself to go back to sleep.

\--

Sam Winchester did not break the school rules, but Sam Winchester also did not fall in love with medieval storytellers who wouldn't tell him their real names, so he supposed there were exceptions to everything.

On the first day back at school after Christmas break, he decided he needed a serious plan of action. He didn't think there'd been a single day during the holiday when he hadn't thought about Tim, wondering how he was spending his time, if he was having a good vacation, if he was maybe thinking of Sam at all. And this was dumb. He couldn't spend all his time thinking about someone he didn't even know the name of.

It took him an entire English class' worth of brainstorming ideas, but soon enough he thought he'd come up with the perfect way of unveiling Tim's identity.

It was mean, but it would work. And hopefully it would be worth it.

He decided to take one week to keep things normal, just to make sure everything was still as good between him and Tim as they had been last semester - and then he'd implement his strategy.

He was embarrassed about how fast he ran to Tim when he saw him approaching across the soccer field that first week back, sprinting towards him and stumbling to a halt in order to stop himself colliding headfirst into the other boy. "Tim! Hi! How were your holidays?"

Tim opened up his arms, and they looked ridiculously uncomfortable what with all the breast-plating and protective gear that was going on. "Hey, I haven't seen you for four whole weeks. Don't I get a hug?"

Screw one week. Sam had to know who Tim was and he had to know now.

"Alright, guys, I'm sorry about this, but I totally forgot the snacks. They're in my locker. Who wants me to go get them?"

There was a chorus of agreement from hungry students who'd had to deal with cafeteria lunches, so Sam swung his backpack (already full of snacks, of course, because he never forgot) over his shoulder and headed off towards the main school building.

Five minutes later, the fire alarm rang, loud and clear across the whole of the school, even reaching as far as the soccer field, which was the assembly point in case of an emergency. Sam came dashing out of the school, a feigned look of panic on his face, his arms filled with Tastycakes and Ho-Hos as though he'd just been picking them up when he'd heard the noise.

He was followed by a stream of other students, everyone who was a member of any club that met after school on a Thursday pouring onto the soccer field, far more than Sam had expected would be there so late. He felt a little bit bad about disrupting so many peoples' days. He told himself it would be worth it when he found out who Tim was.

Instinctively, the students all filed into lines, alphabetical order by their homeroom groups, and Sam kept an eye out for Tim, following his progress. He was only two lines away. That meant they were in the same grade. Sam's anticipation intensified, his heart beat faster, he was ready, but at the same time, he definitely wasn't ready.

\--

Gabriel stood in his line, waiting for his homeroom teacher to start the roll call, and he was seconds away from making a break for it and running away as fast from the field as fast as his small legs could carry him, because this was it, this was the moment when Sam found out who he was and started hating him forever. Which wasn't going to be fun. But he knew that if he went anywhere, there'd be hell to pay tomorrow for messing with the health and safety regulations, and Gabriel was a dick, but he wasn't that much of a dick.

He stayed.

The teacher ran through the names of everyone in their class who was registered for a Thursday after school club, and Gabriel crossed his fingers, hoping that Sam was too far away to hear, or that he just wasn't paying attention, and then finally the teacher reached--

"Gabriel Novak?"

"Here," Gabriel mumbled through his helmet. He could barely hear it himself.

"Excuse me? Was that you, Gabriel?"

"Here." A slightly louder mumble.

"Speak up, Gabriel, you're wasting all of our time.

Gabriel stepped out of the line, yanking off his helmet as he did so. "Alright, calm your tits, I'm fucking here! Are you happy now?" he yelled at the top of his voice.

His world tilted and his vision blurred, and for a moment he was sure he was going to pass out. He could have been normal. He could have raised his hand or something. Instead, he just had to make a scene, and there was no way Sam could have missed that.

Gabriel turned, and he locked eyes with Sam, who looked horrified.

There. There it was. The look Gabriel had pictured every single time he'd imagined telling Sam exactly who he was. The one that said, plain and simple, that he hated that this was who his secret storyteller had turned out to be.

It broke Gabriel's heart.

He broke the eye contact, because that way he could try to remember a different time, a time when Sam had smiled at him, laughed even, and his eyes had crinkled and he'd looked at peace.

Gabriel would never see that from him again, so there was no point trying. He turned and ran from the field, leaping over the fence at the back and launching himself towards the main road, heading towards the sweetshop where he could buy his body weight in fudge and eat himself stupid.

That had been fun while it lasted.

\--

"Alright, calm your tits, I'm fucking here! Are you happy now?"  


Sam stared as Tim pulled off his helmet, revealing a mess of golden hair and a soft face that right now looked almost anguished as he drew the entire field's attention with his shouts.

Holy shit.

Of all the people he'd considered, rejected, considered again because he was getting pretty desperate, and then rejected again because they just weren't quite right, Gabriel had never even been on the list. They shared a math class and a study hall and if Sam was honest, he'd always seen Gabriel as... well, an asshole, and a slacker asshole at that. Definitely not someone who wanted to spend their free time waving around a sword, working on a beautiful costume, telling Sam the most elaborate stories for hours at a time that enthralled Sam and made him so happy.

But now that he knew Gabriel did do those things, he was regretting every detention slip he'd ever thrust in his face, every snide comment he'd ever thrown his way, every time he'd ever jumped to conclusions about him.

He couldn't let him go.

Sam broke out of his own line and sprinted in the direction Gabriel had gone, scaling the fence and taking off after him, throwing off bits and pieces of his costume as he went to make his progress easier. He had longer legs than Gabriel, and it didn't take him long to catch up. He grabbed Gabriel's shoulder right outside the sweetshop and Gabriel spun round, throwing him off and stepping back in alarm.

"What the fuck do you want?" Gabriel shouted, shaking his shoulder as though trying to get rid of any trace of Sam, and Sam wished that didn't hurt. "Come to yell at me for ever joining your stupid club? See, this is why I didn't want you to know who I was! I tried to keep it a secret and make everything easier for you, and it's not my fucking fault there was a fire alarm, but I'm still sorry, okay?"  


"No." Sam didn't even have to think about it, he knew without any consideration that he could never yell at Gabriel no matter what had happened between them in the past. "That's not- look, I just wanted to talk to you, face to face with no helmet in the way. That's all. Because I feel really, really bad that I never gave you a chance before. And I jumped to conclusions about you and that was dumb. But now I've had another way to get to know you and that was a second chance that I probably didn't deserve but... I'm really glad I had it. Because you're actually pretty great, Tim. Gabriel. Whatever your name is."

Gabriel hovered for a moment, debating whether he should move into the sweet shop or stay and talk. Sam widened his eyes, imploring him to stay.

Gabriel stayed. 

"Yeah, that's the other reason I didn't tell you who I was."

"What is?" Sam asked, a little lost.

Gabriel looked down at the ground and mumbled, "I started to think of you as a really good friend and I never had anyone I could talk to about this stuff before and I didn't want to lose that."

And Sam smirked.

A really evil smirk that was annoyingly even better than Gabriel's own smirk.

"What?" Gabriel challenged.

Sam's eyes glittered as he asked, " _Just_ a friend?"

Gabriel froze. His cheeks flamed red and he stared at Sam with his mouth wide open.

Sam grinned wider. "I'll take that as a no, then."

"I- you- why are you doing this?" Gabriel squeaked.

"Maybe one of the reasons I tried so hard to figure out who you are is because it's hard to kiss someone when there's a helmet in the way."

Sam was acting confident, but he had to dig his nails into his palm as he waited for a response, because what if he'd read this wrong?

"Yeah, I... I like that idea," Gabriel stuttered eventually, and this speechless kind of Gabriel was a huge contrast to the one Sam knew who waved his hands around and told elaborate stories, barely even pausing for breath. Sam was kind of proud that he'd caused this.

Sam laughed. He didn't know how he'd expected to feel once he figured out Tim's identity. But he was surprised about how _normal_ it seemed - after the initial shock had worn off, he really didn't care that it was Gabriel. Looking at him still gave Sam the same fluttery feeling that it had for months.

He took Gabriel's hand and lead him into the shop. "Maybe your home environment will calm you down."

When they were done in the sweetshop, Sam led Gabriel to the new Chinese restaurant in town for their first date; the place where he'd tried to take Gabriel last month, to figure out who he was. And maybe it was a little bit later than Sam had planned, but it was worth the wait.

\--

Tim the Bard did not become Gabriel the Bard. The name Tim had kind of a nice ring to it, they both agreed. However, from that point onwards, Tim the Bard began to spend a lot more time with his helmet off. It was nice, especially as summer approached, to be able to sit in his Admiral's lap after a long, hard battle, the two of them exchanging occasional kisses as Tim told his stories.

**Author's Note:**

> cheer me on with camp nanowrimo at **casandsip.tumblr.com**


End file.
